Alfred Joseph Hitchcock is the master of suspense. He was born on August 13 1899, Leytonstone, England. He basically invented the thriller genre. He was also a technician who blended a lot of things in his movie. He mostly used suspense, humor, and sex. He began his filmmaking career in 1919. His first film was a silent film. I think it was with Paramount's. He learned scripting, and editing in London. After all he is the master of suspense stories. Like most directors he worked his way up slowly. First becoming an assistant director, and gradually worked his way up to a complete director.
39 Steps (1935) was his first most famous movie. This movie showed a mature Hitchcock. It was different than usual. Some of his best movies were Vertigo, Psycho, and Rope. He really hit it off in Vertigo. The story, the symbolism, and the tension were great. For example the detailed hair in the painting was shown in an extreme close-up shot which focused on the hole in the hair and the same hair in the painting in the background. In Psycho, he brilliantly filmed the shower scene which rocked America. If anyone has ever scene that movie, they won't take a shower the same way again. The close up and than the fade to the shower drain from the eye of the victim was a radiant idea. If I am correct, he claimed to have filmed the movie Rope with out a cut, or I might be mistaking it for notorious. In those days it was impossible to film with out a cut because of the length of the recording film. He did have cuts, but only two which were unnoticeable by the naked eyes. Possessions like this make an immense Director. .
In most of the Hitchcock movies he tries to have a subtle male-female relationship, dramatism, bright Technicolor, inside jokes, vast symbolism and above all masterfully conducted suspense. He is my favorite director. One reason is because he appears in all of his movies. It's a unique style and works very well.
